Bring Energy to the Classroom
An energized class of students is MUCH easier to teach than a de-energized classroom. There are times where you have a class of students, especially graduate students, who are fully engaged and committed to their learning, they have bonded with each other, and before you ever get to the class, they are already connecting and working and thinking together. Your job, in that glorious situation, is to NOT mess it up!
But, in other classes, both undergraduate and graduate, there are times you walk into the room and you can feel the void. It’s a void of energy and engagement. So, now what?! It is up to you as the professor to begin to bring energy to the classroom and to elicit it from them. Here are ten questions to ask yourself so that you can more productively bring energy into your classes:
- Are you healthy? This is a broad question and could be interpreted in many ways, so go ahead and run through all those areas in your mind: Are you mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy — however you define healthy? If not, is there anything you could do that would enhance your health? All four areas matter.
- Are you eating food that supports your energy or that just gives you a quick boost but will end up detracting from your energy? When I was in my early thirties and just starting out as a professor, I could eat a Snickers bar just before I went to teach my 4:00 class (because I hadn’t eaten lunch) and still be fine. As the years went on, I got smarter and realized “fine” needed to be a consideration for a longer duration!
- Are you well hydrated? Recently I heard from a nutrition and wellness specialist that each day, we should be drinking at least ½ ounce of water for every pound of our body weight. Water. That’s in addition to the other liquids you may be drinking each day. I think I’ll go have a glass of water right now!
- Do you smile in the classroom (on the screen)? Really. Is smiling the facial expression that your students associate with you? Smiling, all by itself, is energizing to you and those around you. The app Managing Anxiety recommends opening your eyes wide and smiling as a way of lifting your spirits and your energy. Surprisingly (since I tend to be skeptical of lots of things), it does work.
- Do you walk into the classroom (real or virtual) with positive energy radiating off of you? Students feel it — or notice when it’s not there. All of us are quite attuned to other people’s energy, albeit some more than others, of course.
- Do you speak to students as you’re coming into the room/“room”? Even the first day, are you greeting students and acknowledging them? That is energizing because it creates connections.
- How do you start the class? With something uplifting, engaging, and intriguing? Or with a robotic, “Well, let’s get started because I’ve got a lot to cover today.”
- What does your voice sound like? Is it interesting to listen to? Are you interested in what you’re teaching or not? Would anyone know that you are interested in this just from listening to you (even if they couldn’t understand the words you were saying)?
- Are you energetic in other parts of your life? How we do one thing is how we do everything… Just think about that. Are you described as someone with a lot of energy or has that phrase never been used about you?
- Does it matter to you — really matter — whether your students learn what you are trying to teach them? How much skin do you have in the game? When you really care, it comes across to your students and affects the energy of the learning environment, i.e., your classroom, lab, office, seminar room, Zoom room, or wherever you are teaching.
Being energized helps your students be energized, which helps you be energized, and it just helps everyone’s teaching and learning.
Note: I tend to be a very high energy teacher and in most cases, by paying attention to all ten of these questions, I was able to have energetic learning environments. BUT…and this is something I learned the hard way. Because my preference was setting up teaching and learning environments that were full of energy (preferably the positive kind!!) when there were groups that did not bring any energy and/or refused to engage, I would try to fill the room with energy using MY energy to make up for the lack of energy brought by the other humans in the room.
Over time, I realized a very clear pattern. When I did this, I ended up with a migraine. Every. Time. I could write a whole article about how I figured this out and what the costs were (to me). Once I finally knew this and then learned to recognize the point at which it was starting to happen (signals in my body), I also learned to stop. Maybe I’ll write another article about that, but not today.
Consider all ten of the questions I shared above and see if there are changes you want and need to make. It’s worth the effort.
